Retail Salespersons vs First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers
Retail Salespersons carries the higher exposed share at 44.1% against 41.1%, a gap of 3.0 points. The difference is driven by friction: the work is similarly producible in both, and what differs is what stands in the way of letting a machine finish it. Release v2026.Q3.
| Occupation | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Capability | Friction | Median pay | Rank | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Salespersons | 44.1% | 18.9% | 37.0% | 0.63 | 0.31 | $35,410 | 194 | exposed |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 41.1% | 21.8% | 37.1% | 0.63 | 0.38 | $48,520 | 254 | exposed |
What stands in the way, in each
Retail Salespersons: the dominant friction is that it runs on knowledge of the organisation that a model cannot hold. Capability sits at 0.63 of 1 and friction at 0.31 of 1.
First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers: the dominant friction is that it runs on knowledge of the organisation that a model cannot hold. Capability sits at 0.63 of 1 and friction at 0.38 of 1.
Capability asks whether a generally available system can produce the work product at all. Friction asks what stops it finishing the job: physical work, being present, being accountable, unseen context, or the cost of checking the output. The rubric is here.
Read each in full
Exposure is not displacement. A higher score does not rank two jobs by how safe they are, and nothing here models adoption, employment or pay.